How to turn a bi-partisan motion into party political propaganda

Yesterday's Full Council meetin was a curious affair, not least because although the Council recommend the public view on a live stream a technical problem meant that proceedings were all but inaudible. A long-distance static camera means that it is often impossible to know who is speaking (even if you could hear them).   There are no captions identifying the speakers.

Not transparent.

An audible recording is promised which will help to clarify what exactly was said by Brent Council Labour, Muhammed Butt, to so anger Conservative councillor  Suresh Kansagra.

A Liberal Democrat motion on Refugees, that sough cross-party support was amended by the Labour Group.  Some of the amendments were sensible but others inserted statements of self-praise for the Labour Party. Am amendment on Morland Gardens seemed to have been inserted just to make propganda for the Council's controverial proposal for the building.

Despite the propagandist elements of the amendment the motion is very welcome.

Here is the motion, Labour amendment in red. The motion as amended was passed.

Click bottom right for full page

Motion on Support for Refugees and Asylum Seekers - to be heard shortly at Brent Full Council

 

Support for Refugees and Asylum Seekers

 

Liberal Democrat Resolution for tonight’s Full Council.

This Council notes:

Liberal Democr
That refugees and asylum seekers are human beings who deserve our full respect and support.

The way in which Boris Johnson’s government talks about and presents refugees, who face their plight through no fault of their own, is deeply un-British, offensive and shameful.

Our own borough is home to people from all corners of the world and all wish to make a valuable contribution to our international community.

Brent must remain welcoming of refugees and asylum seekers and offer required leadership from a local government level by ensuring refugees who arrive in our community have access to needed support and are given the basic opportunities afforded to all in order that they can make a contribution to society.

Organisations like Care 4 Calais, English for Action, Salusbury World, Young Roots, amongst others, are doing crucial work in our community to help settle refugees and offer basic support, whether through English classes that they run or by seeking to address the immense mental trauma many refugees have and are experiencing.

This Council therefore calls on the government to:

1. Drop its shameful, un-British Rwanda policy.
2. End the hostile environment that seeks to criminalise people who have been forced to flee their homelands through no fault of their own.
3. Acknowledge asylum seekers are making dangerous, tragically, all too often, fatal journeys across Europe to seek sanctuary and safety and therefore must allow asylum seekers the legal right of passage into the UK.
4. Give refugees and asylum seekers the ability to play a full part in our society and economy by giving those who arrive in the UK a right to work quickly under defined and reasonable terms.

 

This Council also resolves to:
1. Immediately establish and publish a directory of ESOL provision within our borough on the Council website and also provide easy access benefit and other advice to those who need it.
2. Extend free bus travel to asylum seekers through the existing payment card system.
3. Organise a Brent Refugee Summit by the end of this year (2022), bringing together organisations, mainly in the voluntary sector, who are currently working to support refugees and asylum seekers locally. This will show a united and concerted effort from this Council that people who arrive locally are welcome here and that Brent will play our part in helping to settle people who given the tools will make hugely valuable contributions to our borough - as those who came before them always have.

Councillor Anton Georgiou
Alperton Ward

 

Kingsbury’s history of welcoming refugees – a Platinum Jubilee memorial

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

A Queen’s Green Canopy tree, planted in Roe Green Park.

 

Many people will be celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this weekend, and one excellent way to mark the 70^th anniversary of her reign has been to plant a tree. I saw this recently planted oak tree when walking in Roe Green Park, and when I read the plaque beneath it, I was reminded of some local history that I’m happy to share with you.

 

The tree is one of eighty, planted as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, and the 80^th anniversary of the Association of Jewish Refugees. Their trees have been planted at various places around the country that welcomed refugees from the Holocaust. The Kingsbury tree is in ‘memory of Gustav and Herta Nagler, who found refuge here from Poland and Germany in 1940.’

 

The AJR memorial plaque beside the tree.

I don’t know Gustav and Herta Nagler’s story (if you do, please share it in a comment below), but my research into Kingsbury’s history has shown that they were not the only refugees to find a new life here. 

 

One of the first was Dr Willy Selig, who settled in Kingsbury around 1930, after leaving his home in Munich, an early hotbed of the Nazi Party in Germany. He rented a former farm worker’s cottage at Valley Farm, in Kingsbury Road (where Sutherland Court now stands) and opened a (pre-NHS) GP surgery there. The Valley Farm housing estate was being built just across the road, and he was soon a popular local doctor.

 

Older residents I interviewed, when writing a history of the estate (where I live) for its 75^th anniversary in 2005, remembered him with affection. I heard stories of how he had helped the local ARP team during the war, although as an “alien” he was not allowed to be an official member. The wardens gave him one of their tin helmets to wear, and requisitioned a replacement for one that had been “lost”.

 

A WW2 Air Raid Warden’s helmet.

 

After Fryent Way had been built in 1935, Willy Selig moved to a new house there, at No.22. The medical practice he began is still there, in an enlarged building, as The Fryent Way Surgery, serving the local community.

 

New homes on the Valley Farm Estate attracted many Jewish families, some from other parts of London and others fleeing Nazi persecution. Mersham Drive (named after a village in Kent), developed between 1931 and 1933 by Messrs A & M Haddow, proved very popular (it may be a coincidence, but the street name sounds similar to Mea She'arim, one of the oldest Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem outside the walls of the Old City!). It was residents of Mersham Drive who founded the Kingsbury Hebrew Congregation in 1934, which began meeting in their homes and would go on to become Kingsbury Synagogue.

 

The Spiro family, an older couple, their son and his wife, moved to Valley Drive around 1938. They’d left behind a manufacturing business in Berlin because of growing persecution from Hitler’s Nazi government. The final straw was when young Mrs Spiro was walking past a school, and saw a group of boys beating up a Jewish pupil (identified by the yellow Star of David he was forced to wear), and being urged on to do so by their schoolmaster. She knew she would never want children of her own if they stayed in Germany, and fled to Britain with her husband and his parents. Her own parents decided to remain, and died in the Holocaust.

 

Mr and Mrs Spiro, and their first child, safe in Valley Drive c.1945. (Courtesy of Elizabeth Clarke)

 

Further along Kingsbury Road, it was Holy Innocents’ Church that would provide a safe haven for more refugees, or rather its vicarage. When Rev. Lambart Edwards agreed to become Vicar of Kingsbury in 1883, it was on condition that a “parsonage” would be provided for him, as he had a wife and five children (and probably servants as well). He also had a new church built, rather than the ancient St Andrew’s in the south of the parish.

 

Holy Innocents’ Church, with its vicarage, early 1900s. (From the late Geoffrey Hewlett’s collection)

 

Around 1930, a smaller and more manageable vicarage was built at Roe Green, and the large old house behind the church was sold to John Laing & Sons. They allowed it to be used by the Children’s Society as a home for babies awaiting adoption. In 1939, it was taken over by Dr Barnardo’s Homes, to provide a home for some of the around 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children brought to Britain from German-controlled Europe as part of the “Kindertransport”. 

Those children would have found a welcoming community in Kingsbury. In 1942, the Hebrew Congregation acquired Eden Lodge, a large Victorian mansion beside Kingsbury Green, and registered it as a place of Jewish worship. It was soon to be known as Kingsbury Synagogue, with its own new worship building erected in the grounds by the late 1940s. But Jews escaping Nazi persecution are far from the only refugees that Kingsbury has welcomed.

 

Ivy Cottage at Kingsbury Green, with Eden Lodge beyond it, early 1900s.
(From the late Geoffrey Hewlett’s collection)

 

The Gohil brothers and their families moved to Crundale Avenue in the winter of 1969/70, some of the first Asian residents on the Valley Farm Estate. Like many others of Indian origin, they had come to England from Kenya when that country’s newly independent government discriminated against them. Their new neighbours were friendly and very helpful. Their house only had open fireplaces for heating, and it was the Jewish lady from next door who showed them how to lay and light a coal fire, and where to buy coal and firewood!

 

Over time, many of the Jewish families have moved on from Kingsbury, while newcomers have been a wide variety of people from around Britain and the world, some of them also refugees from wars and famine. 

 

Another view of the AJR Queen’s Green Canopy oak tree in Roe Green Park.

 

It’s fitting that the new oak tree in Roe Green Park was planted ‘with thanks to the people of Britain who helped [Holocaust] refugees.’ Our long-serving Queen has symbolised some of the best aspects of Britain, such as the welcome to refugees shown by the people of Kingsbury, and of Brent.

 

Philip Grant.

EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION TONIGHT - HOME OFFICE 6PM 'No to off-shoring refugees in Rwanda'

 

From Labour Campaign for Free Movement

 

The government has just announced plans to send refugees seeking safety in the UK to Rwanda. You read this right. Priti Patel is determined to make her outrageous plan a reality. The government claims to have reached a deal with Rwanda, meaning that asylum seekers will be sent to have their cases processed 4,000 miles away. If the plans go ahead, they will lead to unspeakable suffering. We know that migrants imprisoned in the UK's detention centres already face inhumane conditions and vile abuse. Further away from the public eye, their situation can only get much worse. Australia's experiment with offshore processing centres resulted in horrific human rights violations, forcing the government to start winding down the scheme. We can't let the UK go down the same route.

Join the demo: 6pm TODAY, Home Office An emergency demo for 6pm today, in front of the Home Office: Marsham St, London SW1P 4DF (map here). Let's stand against this cruelty and demand safety and dignity for all refugees. Spread the word!

 

Brent stands with Ukraine - how you can help

 

From Brent Council

Brent stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and condemns Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of the independent nation of Ukraine, in violation of international law.

Read more about the statement, which was agreed unanimously at Full Council on 24 February. We have a long and proud history of supporting refugees in Brent and are ready to do so again.

As the most diverse borough in the UK we know that lots of our residents, including Ukrainian and Russian citizens, feel strongly about the situation and will want to help those affected by the invasion.

The council is not collecting donations directly, but we have compiled a list of organisations and appeals that residents might consider supporting.

• The Red Cross has set up the Ukraine Crisis Appeal, which is requesting donations to respond to humanitarian needs through food, water, first aid, medicines, warm clothes and shelter
• Unicef has set up a specific fund to protect children in Ukraine
• The UN refugee agency helps refugees fleeing situations of war and has a specific collection for Ukraine
• Care International is running an emergency appeal to provide emergency food and water
• The Ukrainian Embassy has set up a special fund to support Ukraine
• Choose Love are appealing for donations for supporting projects who are providing vital aid and services to those still in and fleeing the country, including: emergency medical care, food, shelter, clothes, legal support, support for the LGBTQIA+ community and mental health support.

Cllr Georgiou spearheads campaign to get IT home learning equipment to refugee students during Covid19 crisis

Cllr Anton Georgiou, Liberal Democrat councillor for Alperton ward,  is leading a campaign to persuade the Department for Education to equip refugee and ESOL students with IT equipment for home learning during the current coronavirus shut down.

In a letter to Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson, Georgiou and his fellow signatories state:

We welcome the initiative that has been taken by central Government to supply the most vulnerable students with computer equipment to facilitate home learning in the coming weeks. However, we would like to see this extended to other vulnerable groups too. 

For example, we are concerned that young refugee and ESL students are being allowed to slip through the net. We are seeing in our communities, and also through anecdotal evidence provided by organisations like Young Roots and Refugee Support Network, that this group of young people are not being provided with the support they need at this time. Although their need for computer equipment is great and they have a social worker, they do not meet the specific criteria set by central Government. 

There are also young people, refugees and asylum seekers aged 19 to 25 who are in further and higher education, but do not have access to computer equipment to enable them to engage in online learning, because they are currently not eligible. It is critical that those who need help get it. We need to ensure that students who already face acute challenges in performing at the same level as some of their peers do not fall further behind, thus widening the attainment gap in our schools, colleges and universities. 

We are calling on the Government to make a concerted effort over the coming weeks to ensure that this much- needed computer equipment reaches these vulnerable groups who are currently not eligible.

Although a Liberal Democrat initiative  I am sure many Wembley Matters readers, irrespective of party, will support this call.

The letter can be read in full HERE

Climate Refugees, Climate Crisis & Population Displacement - February 11th

LET THEM IN! Bring suitcases and travel bags to Liverpool Street station 6pm Friday

From Brent Stop the War

Shamim Rahman from Amnesty International LINK  nd Lucy Cox, a local teacher LINK,   spoke to our meeting last night about War and Refugees.

More information HERE:   https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Refugees%2C-migrants-and-asylum

We agreed to support this initiative on Friday: 

Support Lord Alf Dubbs' campaign call to support his amendment to demand refugee children in Calais be allowed into the UK! They are about to bulldoze the camp!

Bring suitcases and travel bags for protest / photo event this Friday, 14 October, 6pm, at the Kindertransport statue, Broad Street exit, outside Liverpool Station.

Alf Dubbs' was one of 10,000 Jewish Kindertransport children who came to UK in 1938-9 as a result of pressure campaigners put on the government. Lives saved then. Let's do it now.

LET THE CHILDREN IN!

#standuptoracism #stopracism2016 #letthechildrenin

AMNESTY

UPDATE: Green MEPs criticise 'inexcusable' response to 'chaotic situation' in Calais

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Refugees in Calais and Northern France must be treated with dignity and in accordance with international law, and the British and French governments must urgently find long-term humane solutions to their plight, Green MEPs have urged today.

The call comes as the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp is again making headlines on both sides of the Channel: Protests against the camp by local residents have taken place this week; the French Government has announced plans to completely close the camp; there has been fresh disruption to cross-Channel traffic, and now there are Donald Trump-esque plans to build a monstrous wall.

Jean Lambert, MEP for London and Green Party migration spokesperson, said:

“The decision to build a wall in Calais is the latest wrong move in what is the ongoing scandal of the handling of the plight of refugees in northern France. Successive French and British governments have utterly failed to fulfil their responsibilities towards the vulnerable people who find themselves in the camps, especially unaccompanied children. A wall will do nothing to improve the security of vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers or local residents, lorry drivers and cross-channel travellers.

“Adding to the already chaotic situation will only cause more children to go missing and give more control to criminal gangs. The authorities need to gain the trust of people in the camps, provide them with the information they are entitled to, give them a sense of security, and handle their asylum claims properly.

“The UK government must get its act together. Many of the people in Calais have a legal right to be reunited with family in the UK. The slow speed at which governments are dealing with asylum claims is inexcusable. People who find themselves in these camps do not want to enter the UK illegally but they need support to access the asylum system and no matter what they need to be treated with dignity.”

Keith Taylor, MEP for the South East of England, said:

“The situation in Calais is a symptom of a problem; dismantling the camps and removing the last scraps of dignity and security from their residents will not solve the problem. Building a wall is certainly not the answer either. Only through cross-border political cooperation can we hope to alleviate what is a global crisis.

“I empathise with the frustrations of local residents, hauliers, and travellers on both sides of the channel, but we cannot allow this Humanitarian crisis to be exploited by resurgent French or British far right groups. The dehumanising campaigns against camp residents cannot become justification for abandoning our legal and moral duties to approach this crisis with humanity.

“History will not judge our nations kindly if French and British governments refuse to work together constructively on this issue. Attacking the symptoms will never solve the problem.”

Molly Scott Cato MEP, who visited the ‘jungle’ camp in Calais earlier this year and is Green Party spokesperson on EU relations, said:

“The new wall will turn out to be another hugely expensive sticking plaster that will simply result in people going further to get round it and will push up tariffs for people smugglers. Instead, the British Government should be registering applications for asylum in the camps in France to quickly identify those people with a right to enter Britain. Perhaps a wall fits better with the fortress Britain mentality which seems to be at the heart of those pushing for a hard Brexit.”

Saturday demo: A CALL TO EUROPE: HUMAN RIGHTS FOR REFUGEES!

Trafalgar Square London 2-5pm Saturday August 27th

A Demonstration Called by:
Help4Refugee Children, Syria Solidarity Campaign, Calais Action & RS21.

Sixty years ago, the Refugee Convention defined rights for refugees, and most countries signed up to it. The first principle was that refugees should be treated decently. A little later, the world refugee year of 1959-60 was an attempt to get counties to face up to their responsibilities.

Since then, the situation of refugees has got steadily worse. Today their rights are everywhere disregarded, eroded, and trampled on; governments think they can gain popularity by treating refugees in an inhuman way. We say that this is unacceptable. No one is illegal; no one is inhuman.

WE ARE SEEING A GENERAL DEHUMANISATION OF REFUGEES - AND WE DEMAND THAT THIS MUST STOP, AND THAT WE BEGIN TREATING THEM AS HUMANS, WITH THE SAME RIGHTS AS OUR OWN.

The countries of Europe in particular have been trying to evade acknowledging the basic humanity of refugees, and the rights which they should respect. They have deliberately avoided:

1. Their responsibility for the wars in Syria, Iraq, and vast areas of the Middle East which have caused people to flee;

2. Their continuing responsibility for ensuring a safe passage to Europe (in particular across the Mediterranean) for thousands of refugees, as though they had no duty to protect them. Thousands have drowned through a deliberate state policy of neglect.

Worse, once the refugees arrive in Europe, no country will accept them although by the terms of the Refugee Convention once arrived in Europe they can apply for asylum. (Their situation is viewed from a frankly racist perspective - as though they represent an army of foreigners aiming to pollute a pure white Europe.) There is an increasing drive to make life impossible for them wherever they are, closing down what refugee camps there are (particularly in France).

The refugees are housed in shocking, subhuman conditions such as the ‘Jungle’ camp at Calais, where they are constantly harassed by police and threatened with eviction by the State. Indeed, this camp (home to 7000 people and 500 (unaccompanied children) is now threatened with another demolition; which will rob these homeless people of the little they have. The camps already have almost no facilities and are run by hardworking overstretched volunteers relying on donations, not official agencies.

The people who have reached the camps, after difficult and dangerous journeys, have clearly not done it from choice. Our failure to treat them with decency and humanity shames us.
We are demonstrating to demand a new start, based on respect and human principles.

TREAT REFUGEES AS HUMAN BEINGS WITH FULL RIGHTS, ON EVERY STEP OF THEIR ROAD!

Refugees Welcome National Demonstration Saturday March 19th

REFUGEES WELCOME - STAND UP TO RACISM. ISLAMOPHOBIA, 

ANTI-SEMITISM AND FASCISM

National demonstration Saturday 19th March 2016 - Assembly 12 noon, Portland Place, London W1

 
Speakers:

Vanessa Redgrave Actor  Diane Abbott MP Claude Moraes MEP Jean Lambert MEP  Jeremy Hardy Comedian Michael Rosen Children’s novelist & poet Gary Younge Journalist Dave Ward CWU Gen Sec Christine Blower NUT Gen Sec Sally Hunt UCU Gen Sec Maurice Wren Chief Exec Refugee Council Harish Patel National Equalities Officer, Unite The Union Gloria Mills, Chair – TUC Race Relations Committee Talha Ahmad National Council, Muslim Council of Britain Zita Holbourne Co-Chair, Black Activists Rising Against Cuts  Marilyn Reed Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice/Blaksox Lee Jasper Movement Against Xenophobia Malia Bouattia NUS Black Students Officer Shakira Martin NUS VP Further Education  Shahrar Ali Deputy Leader, The Green Party Yusuf Hassan VP Federation of Student Islamic Societies Mohammed Kozbar Spokesperson, Muslim Association of Britain Maz Saleem Daughter of the Late Mohammed Saleem Stephanie Lightfoot Bennett Co-Chair, United Friends and Families Gerry Gable Editor, Searchlight Sam Fairbarn Secretary, People’s Assembly Against Austerity Lindsey German Convenor, Stop the War Coalition Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett, Organisers – Stand Up To Racism

info@standuptoracism.org.uk
@antiracismday

Palestinian Hanan Al Hroub beats Preston Manor's Colin Hegarty to Global Teacher Prize

Preston Manor School will be disappointed that maths teacher Colin Hegarty narrowly missed out on the £1m Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize. Commiserations to Colin after all his great work but the prize has gone to a very deserving winner.

Hanan Al Hroub, a teacher from Palestine, won the prize amid much public rejoicing in Palestine. Her story is inspiring.

Hanan grew up in the Palestinian refugee camp, Bethlehem, where she was regularly exposed to acts of violence. She went into primary education after her children were left deeply traumatised by a shooting incident they witnessed on their way home from school. 

Her experiences in meetings and consultations to discuss her children’s behaviour, development and academic performance in the years that followed led Hanan to try to help others who, having grown up in similar circumstances, require special handling at school.

We just want peace; we want our children to enjoy their childhoods in peace.

 With so many troubled children in the region, Palestinian classrooms can be tense environments. Hanan embraces the slogan ‘No to Violence’ and uses a specialist approach she developed herself, detailed in her book, ‘We Play and Learn’. She focuses on developing trusting, respectful, honest and affectionate relationships with her students and emphasises the importance of literacy. 

She encourages her students to work together, pays close attention to individual needs and rewards positive behaviour. Her approach has led to a decline in violent behaviour in schools where this is usually a frequent occurrence; she has inspired her colleagues to review the way they teach, their classroom management strategies and the sanctions they use.

 

Hanan has shared her perspective at conferences, meetings and teacher training seminars. She hopes that, with education, her people can reclaim their homeland.

• Grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp; motivated to teach by her experiences as a mother of children traumatised by a shooting incident
• Offers specialist care to pupils exposed to violence
• Focuses on providing a safe space in the classroom and pays attention to individual needs
• Has shared her approach at Ministry conferences and teacher training seminars

Brent Start ESOL cuts hit the voiceless and reveal government hypocrisy

Guest blog by 'Enda Mess'

It's good to have the opportunity to raise awareness of the severe cuts that are affecting Adult Education and, very recently, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) courses in particular. These cuts often go unnoticed as those who take up these services are often those whose voices are least likely to be heard. However, the classes are highly valued and often vital to those who use them.

At Brent Start (formerly Brent Adult and Community Education Service - BACES) the recent central government cuts mean that 40% of ESOL provision will be cut - with job losses to match! The cut has been very sudden - the government announced the withdrawal of all funding for classes for those on Job Seekers Allowance with immediate effect at the end of July - just when everyone was finishing for the year and all timetables and staffing was planned.

Despite the fact that services in other areas seem to be managing to hold off from making immediate redundancies, here in Brent the decision has been made act very swiftly in implementing the cuts and staff are returning to work to find they may not have a job by mid October.

What were known as the JCP (Job Centre Plus) classes were problematic for most adult educators and trade unionists in that they were 'mandated' - the new euphemism for compulsory. Students were referred from the Job Centre and there could be sanctions for non attendance. However, their withdrawal removes an opportunity for free classes and 40% of any provision is a huge loss.

This of course comes at a time when the plight of refugees and migrants is very topical. The cut was announced the day after Cameron said: 'At the moment we have parts of the country where opportunities remain limited ... where language remains a real barrier, where too many women from minority communities remain trapped outside the workforce, and where educational attainment is low'. Such decisions show the hypocrisy of the current government’s  stated aim to help individuals develop skills in order to gain jobs and communicate with others and  ‘lift the horizons of some of our most isolated and deprived communities’. (David Cameron’s extremism speech 20/07/2015)

Since then however, many thousands of people have connected with the humanitarian aspect of the refugee situation and have clearly shown that they do not support the government's hostile stand towards people who are driven to leave what they know behind and take enormous risks to start a new life for their families.

For me, the huge but often unrecognised value of adult and community learning (everything from computer classes to pottery to sign language to childcare courses – as well as ESOL)  lies not just in the structured learning of the courses provided. It provides spaces and opportunities for a wealth of informal learning to take place. There is a real diversity of backgrounds amongst those who attend - people's lives overlap here in a way they seldom do elsewhere and these interactions can create really positive opportunities for the exchange and building of knowledge, skills and experience amongst students, that can be empowering way beyond the scope of the actual course.

We have a very long history in Brent of providing ESOL classes and it will be a terrible loss to dismantle nearly half of what has been a strong, committed and thriving department providing a quality service to the community for many years. ESOL classes provide a way in for people to access crucial services, participate in education and find work. They help parents support their children at school. They enable people who, when they arrive here bring valuable skills and experience of all kinds, to practise those skills and share that experience for the benefit of us all.

The University and College Union (UCU) which represents staff teaching in Adult Education as well as FE and HE, is campaigning against these cuts both locally and nationally and the ‘Action for ESOL’ campaign is also very active

A demonstration has been organised to protest against the cuts in ESOL classes on

Wednesday 16th September at 5.30, outside the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (this is where the cuts come from!)

Here is a link to the Facebook page for this event LINK 

Please share, support, come along!

UCU and 'Action for ESOL' will also be attending the ‘Refugees are Welcome Here’ event on Saturday 12^th September.